


the strength to let it show

by softgrungeprophet



Series: post-Space Knight AU [2]
Category: Venom (Comics)
Genre: Affection, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apologies, Blushing, Canon Divergence - Venom: Space Knight, Cooking, Domestic, Embarrassment, Flash is using prosthetic legs, Food, Guilt, Hands, Hugs, Introspection, Mental Link, Names, Nervousness, Other, POV Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Purified Venom Symbiote, Recovered Memories, Sharing a Body, Shyness, Size Difference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-11 02:09:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17437904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softgrungeprophet/pseuds/softgrungeprophet
Summary: Flash moves with great confidence sometimes, and with much less other times.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Intended to go sometime after the events of [A Mistake too great to hide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17269973).  
> Procrastinating on Sinner by writing... completely unrelated fic... lmfao
> 
> Will have more chapters but there's no set number and no intended update schedule. Just me messing around when i'm bored and feel like playing in this world.   
>  
> 
> Title from REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The symbiote loves Flash.

The symbiote couldn't rightly recall whose idea it had been to invite Eddie over for dinner, but dinner was in the works and Eddie sat at the dining table beside Andi, the two of them looking at her laptop screen together. Sweet, how quickly Eddie had taken to her—helping her with a college application, very intent, very serious. That soft spot for the young, so integral to his very being.

It brought up the out-of-focus softness of good memories, barely legible after their recent recovery.

In the kitchen, Flash hummed off-key and off-beat, for once allowing the symbiote to thread along his prosthetic limbs and his human thighs and hips, to steady him as he sliced a zucchini into medallions. It kept one eye on him, a few slim tendrils bracing his lower back as well (not that he needed it, but it allowed him to focus on other things), and kept the other eye on Andi and Eddie through the kitchen bar-window. Not a fully manifested head or anything so intensive. Simply a loose drape around his shoulders, cloth-like, with black plastered up against the back of his neck. It blinked its eyespots from that vantage point, processing the atmosphere around them.

The air of the apartment was, admittedly, somewhat stuffy from its brief abandonment in their absence, but smelled free of strong negative emotions. Andi was frustrated but focused, a little pleased-with-herself. Mania, very relaxed. Eddie... uncomfortable, but at the same time very much in his element. Confident.

Flash tasted of contentment and calm satisfaction.

"You can go sit with them if you want."

The symbiote extended a tendril up the side of his neck to caress his jaw, lightly.

It could do as he suggested. But did it want to?

A small flutter of unease unfurled in their shared body as it considered the prospect.

Its memories still moved hazily, sluggish and half-obscured. Returned after their temporary bond with Mania, but only barely. A lot of what resurfaced came in the form of words and emotions, direct quotations and the sensations of experiences. It remembered the things it said, but not where it said them, or the exact context. Yet, in those recollections it felt itself temporarily free of a host and taunting. Needling. Tormenting.

 **I do not know if that is wise**.

"Suit yourself."

Flash set the disc-shaped zucchini slices on a paper towel, on a plate beside the stove, and sprinkled them with a little salt to... _desiccate_. How deplorable. The symbiote made sure to keep any parts of its mass tucked neatly within Flash's body, away from the salt crystals.

Flash grinned and muttered, "I'm not gonna salt you, dude."

Nonetheless...

 **Be careful**.

Flash chuckled to himself as he prepared a large pot with which to make pasta.

He was not, by any means, a "master chef." His dyslexia made certain recipes frustrating to follow, and he was impatient, but he had a good eye for ingredients and improvisation and worked well with his hands. The symbiote liked to sink through his joints as he moved into a particular rhythm of preparation, only occasionally slipping out to catch a small morsel of fumbled dry pasta or a stray drip of olive oil.

Flash shifted gears to deftly dicing onions, a well-practiced motion that rolled through his hand and up through his forearm.

The symbiote drew a thin, clear film over the surface of his eyes to block the mist of C3H6OS released by the onion's broken cells, to keep the irritant from wafting into his system. It seemed like a strange oversight that humans would eat something which released a chemical seemingly designed to incapacitate one of their most important senses, but... The symbiote could not entirely judge humans for evolutionary oddities when it, too, had its own peculiar sensory disadvantages.  

"I never get tired of this." Flash lifted one of his hands in signal—the symbiote wrapped around it and formed a small face in his palm. "Bulletproof? Whatever. Shape-shifting? Fine. Not crying while I cut an onion? Priceless." He smiled at the face in his hand before closing his fingers, letting the symbiote sink back inside.

It flowed up the inside of his arm and settled around his collarbone and sternum and ribcage, stretching out thin threads through his bone marrow, his heart. It dispersed into his blood for a moment, latching onto erythrocytes to be pulled and pushed with a purpose through his veins and arteries while he continued to cook, simmering his onions on the stovetop.

He'd stopped humming, but still bobbed his head a little bit, and when the symbiote reconvened with itself in his brain, it found traces of a tune bouncing around aimlessly.

The symbiote snapped out tiny jaws to steal a couple of anchovies while Flash made the sauce.

"Hey!" Flash chided it with no real heat.

The symbiote hummed and reached out from his body to take two of the plates he had retrieved from the cupboard.

He sighed, but allowed the symbiote to help set up the dishes as everything reached completion. The symbiote rifled through the silverware drawer for some forks, as well, and set those aside.

Not much longer. Steam, and many good smells...

Andi looked up as they entered the living room, the symbiote carrying all three of the plates, leaving Flash's hands free so he could support himself with his cane when he leaned over the table to set the forks out.

"What is that? Spaghetti?"

"It's puttanesca." The blunt way Flash pronounced the word formed as a pleasantly clipped vibration of air through his vocal folds and oral cavity.

Andi grinned.

"Uh-uh—" Flash raised his finger, scolding, though he smiled as well. "Don't say it."

She pouted.

Eddie sat as far away from everyone else as he could, while still being seated at the table—finding a third chair had turned out to be a struggle until Flash remembered the one he kept in the entry alcove near the door, so all three of them were able to sit at the table in the corner of the living room, with the symbiote wrapping Flash up in a cozy black sweatshirt emblazoned with its own snaggle-toothed face.

 **Eddie is uncomfortable**.

Flash glanced toward him as nonchalantly as possible and—on noting his stiff posture—nodded. He looked at Andi as well, just so he wouldn't come across as suspicious. She smiled brightly at him, face stuffed with pasta, and he laughed.

"Good?"

She nodded with great enthusiasm. "M-hm!"

The mood in the room eased, somewhat.

*******************************

"I don’t wanna, like.. I don't know." The symbiote had taken its full form across from Flash—they sat on his bed together, with the door closed, so they could speak privately while still being face-to-face. Mostly for Flash's sake. He had pulled one of the symbiote's large hands into his lap, palm upward, and currently poked at the tips of its talons as he considered his words. He coaxed the symbiote's fingers into a loose fist and looked up with a slight frown. "You know him better than I do."

With a low rumble of assent, the symbiote pulled its hand back. Only for a second—it reached up with both hands to pantomime cupping Flash's face between them. A gesture it recognized as comforting. Of course, the size of its hands would have engulfed his entire skull, so it did not quite touch his face even as he reached up and wrapped his fingers around its wrists.

 **"I do not believe we should form Venom around him**."

"Okay, yeah." Flash leaned his head into just one of the symbiote's palms. "I think we can both agree on that."

The symbiote let its fingers curl around Flash's head, gently, other hand lowering to its knee. Flash's face and neck flushed slightly and he closed his eyes. In seclusion, he seemed much more willing to engage in these small acts of affection, though his heart always raced slightly. The symbiote could never place exactly why—Eddie was easy, had been easy to place. He was a romantic and vocally adored symbiosis enough that it shone through even the foggiest of memories, with certain obvious exceptions...

Flash, on the other hand, despite the positive response, often backpedaled or brushed off his desires for affection as if they were minor inconveniences or something shameful.

 **"Eugene**..."

He opened his eyes, peering out over the line of the symbiote's thumb across his face.

 **"I enjoy our time together**."

"Oh—" A deeper blush. His tongue poked out as he licked his lips, and he seemed to realize something—he shrugged away slightly, enough of a gesture to let the symbiote know to withdraw its hand. It did so. Folded its hands in its lap like it had often seen him do, and stared at him.

He ran his hand through his hair and bit his lip, looking down in thought.

 **"Do you not**?"

His eyes widened and he looked up again. "No—of course I do!"

The symbiote rumbled again, a cross between a laugh and a purr, in imitation of its multiple past hosts and their very human tendencies.

Flash crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "Are you teasing me?"

 **"No**."

He softened under the symbiote's gaze.

 **"I would never tease one I love so dearly**."

He tensed slightly, and the smell of sweat lifted from his body as his temperature spiked. "I thought you loved Eddie."

 **"I love Eddie dearly as well. I have loved him since I met him**."

"A—and you love me?" Flash cleared his throat nervously. "Like... Like a friend, right?"

The symbiote scrutinized him, deeply serious and wishing to be in his brain at that moment to better parse what thoughts and patterns of brainwaves caused his current wash of particular hormones and discomforts. The longer it remained silent, the more he fidgeted.

 **"Why would I not love you as a friend**?"

Flash breathed out a sigh.

 **"I do not see how one could love another without friendship. You and Betty were friends, yes? Valkyrie? I, too, would consider myself your friend in such a way. Eddie and I were friends, as well**. **It is integral to a positive relationship**."

"Okay—fuck." Flash lowered his head and raised his arms to bury his face in his hands. " _Fuck_ me—"

He made a face. "Wait, don't take that literally."

The symbiote rumbled again, with exasperation, like a deep sigh.

"I know, I know, I—" Flash ran his hands back through his hair, clearly frustrated. "You've been in my head, you know I'm not good at this kind of stuff."

" **I understand.** "

"Do you?"

The symbiote reached for him—he did not shy away, or flinch, or show any negative response, simply a slight kick in his heart and respiratory rates which then settled back into something more subdued, though still moderately higher than his day-to-day. The symbiote took that as allowance and settled its hands on his shoulders. Around them, rather, so big as to cover his upper arms as well. He raised his chin slightly and stared the symbiote down. He dug his fingers into the sheets without breaking eye contact, pupils very wide despite the light on above them. Stubborn and curious and uncertain-but-pretending-to-be-confident.

" **I do not claim to understand human culture in its entirety but I would like to think that I understand you in your entirety, Flash Thompson.** "

That made Flash go red again, passively, as he stared.

In its sensory view of the apartment, the symbiote felt a disturbance of air and sound and dust and so it sank into Flash at the shoulders, briefly enveloping him before spreading out just below the surface of his skin.

 _Knock knock knock_.

 "Uh—" Flash fixed his hair and straightened his shirt. "Come in!"

Andi poked her head through the door. She took Flash's mussed appearance and flushed face in with a single look and rolled her eyes. "Gross."

"Wh—I wasn't doing anything!" Flash blushed brighter, filling his body with a slightly uncomfortable but not entirely disagreeable heat.

" _Sure_." Andi leaned against the doorframe. "You want anything from the store?"

Flash shook his head. "No, thanks."

"Okay, suit yourself." Andi closed the door behind her with a soft click.

 **We will speak further on the subject of love, later**.

Flash fell back against the sheets with a sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, gently opening the closet door: hey flash you can come out now it's okay dude
> 
>  
> 
> andi: either about to call flash a ho OR quote _a series of unfortunate events_. your call. 
> 
> if you're wondering why flash was salting the zucchinis, it's cause this recipe I found said to use salt to draw out excess moisture before roasting the zucchini... (he's not ACTUALLY desiccating them. symby is just being a drama queen)  
> also, it's a recipe with zucchini and eggplant, which isn't normally in puttanesca but sounds okay. I actually don't really like zucchini outside of bread so... eh... anyway: [link](https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/roasted-zucchini-eggplant-puttanesca-pasta)
> 
>  
> 
> Me thinking about how big the symbiote's hands are compared to Flash's body, thinking about how the symbiote can just fit his entire head in one hand:  
> 
> 
> also relevant:  
> this doodle i made:  
> 
> 
>  
> 
> [(link to tumblr post)](http://hoardlikegoldenirises.tumblr.com/post/182016105522)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flash likes to be called Flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of name talk in this chapter, and Flash filling out forms. Some anxiousness... Playful back-and-forth with Andi...  
> Symbiote takes a partial shape, to talk out loud while still attached to Flash.  
> Flash gets flustered.... u kno.....
> 
>  
> 
> this is very self-indulgent :3c

"Hey, I, uh—I was thinking of maybe changing my name."

Andi looked up from her spot on the floor, leaning over the coffee table with a pad of paper and her phone. "Huh?"

Flash shrugged as nonchalantly as possible where he sat, but discomfort flooded his brain, making him hot and tightening the muscles in his back as he said, "Just thought I should mention it."

Andi continued to stare at him with a vague sense of confusion diffused across her face, one eyebrow slightly tweaked, head tilted to the side. "...To _what_?"

"What?"

She gestured at him, and the air shifted slightly, displaced by her motion. "What are you changing it to?"

Flash blinked, and he mirrored her confusion. He had gotten, if anything, hotter, and tenser, and his heart fluttered as he leaned forward slightly.

"To Flash."

They blinked at each other.

"Wait." Andi straightened her back and turned to face him entirely, pushing her notebook and phone off to the side. "Your name's not Flash?"

Realization and relief trickled down Flash's spine, from the back of his neck all the way down to his tailbone. He pressed his palm to his forehead with a soft, breathy laugh before grinning at Andi. Fondness, amusement, general giddy energy all swirling around in his brain and his heart and his gut. A small amount of nerves, still, nauseating. "No," he spoke lightly, but still a little higher pitched than he would if he were entirely comfortable. "My name _is_ Flash, just not... legally."

"Oh—" Andi nodded, raising her hand to her chin in mock-thoughtfulness. "I see, I see."

Flash snorted, but he felt much more relaxed now, though goosebumps pricked up his arms as his nervous sweat cooled. "I'm pretty sure my nametag said—never mind." He rubbed one hand over the other, briefly. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know, 'cause you're my sidekick and all, and also because I'm probably gonna be gone for a few hours."

She tilted her head at him, exuding a wave of curiosity. "When?"

"Uh..." Flash made a face as thought, forehead wrinkling and nose crinkling up and lips forming an exaggerated pout. "What day is today?"

"Friday."

"Tomorrow? Maybe? I... I don't know, actually." Uncertainty bubbled up. "Is the courthouse open on Saturday?"

Andi raised her eyebrows. "Coach." She couldn't keep herself from smiling, slightly showing her teeth. "Did you research this at all?"

"Yes!" Flash planted his hands on the arms of the recliner. "I just... It's just a pain in the ass to keep track of everything. You know how it is. All those rules about... birth certificates and SSNs..."

"...I guess?"

He sighed. His heart kept beating too fast. The symbiote tried to soothe it down into something more sustainable. It couldn't quite understand why he felt so nervous or why something like a name was so important to him. It, after all, had no name except that which others chose to call it. Sometimes Venom, sometimes Other, sometimes less desirable titles such as Monster. Ah. Maybe it could, in some way, understand after all.

**You should have informed me you disliked the name "Eugene."**

_It wasn't a big deal_.

 **You are a terrible liar, Flash**.

A glimmer of warmth blossomed in his chest and up his throat, and he ducked his head.

Andi made a strange expression and turned back to her notebook with a muttered, "I hope I don't act like that."

A beat passed—she bristled and said, "I do _not_!"

Flash laughed, and she shot him a glare.

"You guys all suck."

Black shimmered across her arm for a split second and she softened her posture and expression as Mania stroked down the back of her hand in a momentary trail of vines and leaves, a temporary tattoo that sank back into her pores.

Both humans avoided eye contact, half-fond, half-embarrassed.

*******************************

Flash stared down at the forms he had printed out, hunched over the table. "I hate these things..."

A fair opinion. Full of jargon and awkwardly curved phrasing that spun his brain in a circle and made the unstable structure of the words all the more evident—the petition form had him frowning and rubbing his eyes, despite his progress. He simply needed to print and sign his name. But the symbiote felt a swell of uncertainty, not for the first time in the past fifteen minutes. It made his stomach heavy and his throat tight.

"I don't know what to put here—" He pointed at the line which read "Please print name," just below the place where he had written out his current legal name and his desired change.

The problem was—and this thought rolled around in his mind like a prickly, windborne seed—was he meant to print his name as it was currently, or as it would be in the future?

 **I believe it must be your current legal name**.

He sighed and painstakingly printed out _Eugene Thompson_ on the line. He almost spelled his own name wrong, so frazzled by overthinking and self-doubt—the symbiote corrected the course of his hand and kept him from having to redo the whole process over again.

 **Flash**.

His shoulders drooped.

 **You are doing fine**.

He signed his name and shoved the papers and pen away. Most of them seemed to be for the court to fill out, or so he hoped.

He tensed, as if in sudden realization.

" _Shit_ —"

**Flash?**

"I wasn't supposed to sign it yet."

The symbiote twined around his arms and wrists, pulling his hands away from his hair and coaxing him into an embrace, perhaps awkward as it technically would be considered a self-hug, but the symbiote put out its own strands and ropes as well and wrapped him up tightly. His body temperature settled and his heart rate steadied and he let his head down as the symbiote reached up around his jaw and through his hair as well. Offering comfort and security and insulation.

"...Thanks."

 **Flash**.

The symbiote pushed a shape from its own mass, pulling a torso out from Flash's body, building out shapes to form a head as well, and arms, and hands to gently frame his face.

His breath caught in his throat for just a second at its touch. "Yeah?"

It tilted its head and stroked his cheek with one clawed finger, relishing the way his nerve endings sparkled at the contact.

 **You enjoy it when I say your name**.

Flash scoffed. Blusterous faux-confidence. "Why would I—I'm not a _dog_. It's just my name. I don't care what you call me."

What a stubborn fool.

The symbiote drew its being together to form lungs, large bellows to draw in and release the air between them. A larynx, through which the air vibrated to form sound. Within its head, both an oral cavity and a nasal cavity, though it did not give itself a nose. Just two small pinpricks of nostrils to allow the nasalized air to escape. All based on the blueprint of its previous hosts, though slightly different. It sprouted teeth as it opened its mouth and allowed its tongue to twist out of the cavernous blackness of its own throat—

It leaned very, very close to Flash, so its room-temperature breath breezed across his face.

" **Flash Thompson.** "

Flash shivered.

" **You cannot fool me with your bravado.** "

He closed his eyes with a grumble, but... "Fine, okay?" He frowned. "I like it when you say my name."

" **Why?** "

"Wh—" Flash's face scrunched up. He opened his eyes. "How am I supposed to know?!"

The symbiote would have rolled its eyes, if it had any. Instead, it leaned back slightly, allowing itself to grow somewhat taller, closer to its regular size, and looked down at Flash. He jutted his chin and pulled his shoulders back to make himself appear bigger in return (subconsciously, most likely), and the symbiote laughed. A very raspy, whispery laugh, but a laugh.

" **You are a strange person, Flash Thompson.** "

He licked his lips with a deeper frown, but something thrummed in his thoughts. A pleased, fragile kind of thing; some unplaceable emotion the symbiote lacked the experience to fully define—Flash's brain offered no insight, either. Just that tiny seed of satisfaction and confusion and a nervousness that, to use a human expression, conjured butterflies in Flash's stomach.

The symbiote took Flash's chin in one of its hands. He flushed pink halfway down his body, but all the symbiote did was tap his chin with its thumb and then sink into him, unraveling across his face and shoulders and chest to settle itself into his bloodstream.

He shivered again, just a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> flash does not end up going to the courthouse until like a week later


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie and the symbiote reach an agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise visit, apologies, guilt

Flash had realized, some few years ago, that sometimes the best apology was to leave someone alone for the rest of the foreseeable future.

To allow them to move on from you.

The symbiote could not quite bring itself to do that, and it seemed as though Eddie, in turn, could not either.

He being the one to benefit most from moving on, he being the one within his every right to reject it for the rest of his life—he stood in the hallway outside of the front door, hair still dusted with water droplets from the rain outside, hands shoved into his jacket pockets, glowering.

"Uh..." Flash glanced over his shoulder, into the entrance, as if perhaps someone might be standing behind him, for Eddie to talk to. "Hey?"

Eddie nodded toward the interior of the apartment. "May I?"

With an uncertain glance, Flash shrugged—"Sure," he said, quietly, and rolled his wheelchair back slightly. A down day, of course, to relax without the legs. And of course their day to themselves, with Andi out patrolling, would be the day Eddie Brock decided to pay them a visit. The symbiote could feel a mild pall of irritation spread out over the depths of Flash's thoughts.

Flash closed the door behind Eddie, and followed him into the main area of the apartment—the living room. Eddie stood in the middle of the room, as if unsure where to go. Flash maneuvered his wheelchair around him, and headed toward the couch, himself. He stopped just shy and pulled himself up onto the recliner, instead, settling back with a sigh before finally leveling a slightly pinched stare on Eddie.

"Not that I don't love our little chats, Brock, but some warning would have been nice."

Eddie smirked. "Consider this retaliation." He shrugged out of his jacket, revealing the turtleneck sweater underneath, and draped it over the back of one of the dining chairs. "You pay me an unexpected visit, I offer you interest."

 "Right." Flash watched his every movement. "As long as it's not like the last time you 'retaliated' against me."

With a huff of half-formed laughter, Eddie pulled the dining chair from the table and sat. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it."

A brief hiccup in Flash's thoughts, then smooth again.

They had all this space stretched out between them, and the air hung with dust and dissatisfaction. Flash's heart beat evenly, and he breathed steadily... Calm, mostly, though he seemed to be avoiding something in the back of his head. It would try to surface, rippling, and he would ignore it. The symbiote held its curiosity in check—kept itself from poking around that tiny radar blip, that little record skip.

Eddie smelled like sweat and volatility. Just a little bit tense, a little bit rigid in his posture, though outwardly relaxed.

_You know him, V. Why is he here?_

The symbiote swam up Flash's spine in as soothing a motion as it could muster—admittedly more for itself than for Flash, but he seemed to appreciate it no less.

It did not know why Eddie would invite himself over, and it pushed that thought at Flash.

On occasion, Eddie visited, on their rare invitation. Often because Andi would pester them, or the symbiote missed him. He would oblige, this was true. But he rarely seemed happy to be there, and it had been _months_ since he last showed his face. Not since before Flash had gone through the process of updating his legal name. So... why now?

Flash crossed his arms, eyes still on Eddie. Watching, carefully.

Finally, Eddie spoke—"Why did you _really_ apologize?"

Ah.

Flash looked inward, coaxing the symbiote out. It allowed itself to be drawn forth, slicking Flash's skin with an oily blackness, forming a face somewhere between their old Agent Venom look and their newer appearance... Pharaonic and minimal. It used Flash's body to speak within its helmet-like visage, filtering the words out tinny and distorted—

" **Guilt, Eddie. I apologized to assuage my own guilt.** "

His expression hardened.

" **This was selfish. I am fully aware.** "

He breathed out a quiet, bitter laugh, ducking his head as he did so. "And they call _me_ morally gray."

Venom shifted, for a moment humanly uncertain—but they rolled to their feet, out of the recliner, and approached Eddie in a manner not unlike that night in his apartment. Hesitant, slow. Don't spook the injured animal. Yet firm in their posture. They stood a foot away from him, hands hanging loose at their sides.

He watched them, the whole time. Eyes dark, brows furrowed, barely breathing.

" **Eddie.** "

They put as much as they could into that single word. His short, sweet name on their tongue. So much meaning. All their regrets—all of the _symbiote's_ regrets, and frustrations, the _symbiote's_ love and adoration. Its desire.

 _Slow down, buddy_.

 **Yes**.

Eddie remained in his seat. Waiting to see what they might say or do.

But they didn't do anything. They couldn't, not if they didn't want to hurt him again. This had to be up to him.

He stood.

They continued to watch him.

He watched them back, and slowly said, "I can't forgive you. What you did was unforgiveable." He smoothed a hand across one of his sleeves. "But I can try to move on and foster a relationship with you again, like before." He paused, ticking with an un-displayed nervousness. "If you're willing to be patient."

" **Yes, Eddie.** "

Eddie nodded. "Alright."

He took a step forward, hesitant. The air all around him smelled so strongly of his tamped-down anxiety, some kind of fight or flight instinct that must have been pulsing through him. But he just reached out and touched their hand in a motion that sent a thrill up their arm.


End file.
